Page 12 - The New Gold Standard

Foreword
and their families are the true unsung heroes of the hospitality
industry. This is not a job for people who expect a nine-to-five
schedule. When a person chooses to work in a hotel, weekends
and holidays off are rare, and while others may stay home during
inclement weather, our Ladies and Gentlemen manage to come
to work so that they can continue to serve our guests.
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, trapping
over 1,000 guests in our Canal Street hotel for five days, the con-
ditions were difficult and challenging. Most of our Ladies and
Gentlemen chose to stay at the hotel throughout the storm be-
cause they understood how much our guests would need them
until they could be evacuated to safety. The same was true of
Hurricane Wilma, which scored a direct hit on Cancún, Mex-
ico. Our staff stayed with the guests until we could arrange for
them to leave the storm-ravaged area. And in Jamaica, every time
a tropical storm disrupts people’s lives in Montego Bay, the Ladies
and Gentlemen at our Rose Hall resort not only stay on site but
they bring children from a local orphanage to the hotel to shel-
ter them from the storm. I have scores of letters from grateful
guests marveling at the genuine care and comfort they received
from hotel staff even as power went out and conditions were
frightening during these times of crisis.
I have learned to say a sincere thank-you in many languages
as I visit hotels from Dubai to Dallas and from Shanghai to San-
tiago. In return, I have been touched by stories about how work-
ing at Ritz-Carlton has changed and improved the opportunities
for our staff members’ families to enjoy a better life and a brighter
future. What greater satisfaction can I get than knowing we have
provided a chance for them to both support their families and
take pride in the work they do each and every day?
It was on one of my early visits that I overheard the com-
ment, “The answer is yes; . . . now, what is the question?” I had
often been told that offering lateral service was a basic principle
at our hotels, but that exchange said it all to me about what
makes our Ladies and Gentlemen so exemplary. There is never

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